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by NewEyes



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry is a ghost, Character Death, Gravedigging, Halloween, M/M, some horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 22:33:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5067094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewEyes/pseuds/NewEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len was slumped at his desk, head in his hands. He could hear the Rogues arguing from here, God, could they ever just shut up and work together nicely for 5 minutes?</p>
<p>"Captain Cold."</p>
<p>Len did not jump. But it was a close thing. He looked up and saw Barry Allen standing in front of him, nothing too unusual in itself except that Barry Allen was dead, and hovering in front of him was what could only be described as a ghost. </p>
<p>My Halloween fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> Posting this a little early as I might not have time next weekend, this is my fic for Halloween.

Len was slumped at his desk, head in his hands. He could hear the Rogues arguing from here, God, could they ever just shut up and work together nicely for 5 minutes?

"Captain Cold."

Len did not jump. But it was a close thing. He looked up and saw Barry Allen standing in front of him, nothing too unusual in itself except that Barry Allen was dead, and hovering in front of him was what could only be described as a ghost. The ghost was dressed in the Flash suit, though it was torn in the middle where Zoom had stabbed his hand through the real Barry's chest, if Len looked closely he could see bits of torn flesh and skin.

He looked up at the ghost's face. It looked like Barry Allen but that didn't mean anything, there were plenty of metas who could probably do something like this. Len held a very pragmatic view of death, he didn't believe in the supernatural and he felt the chances of the pleasant and peaceful afterlife were slim.

"This isn't funny," he announced. He thought he'd been hiding the pain he felt over the death of Barry pretty well but someone in the Rogues must have picked up on something, decided to test him. With Zoom around the Rogues were getting harder and harder to control. They were scared, didn't trust that Len could keep them safe, and the Flash getting killed really hadn't helped.

"It's not a joke. It's really me Snart." The ghost looked earnest, just the way Barry did. Or used to.

"So what, you've come back as a ghost and the person you choose to visit is me? It seems pretty unlikely kid. You have friends and family to go to if you're looking to play nice. If you're looking to haunt someone, I'd have thought Zoom would be your first choice."

"I tried everyone else!" Barry exclaimed. "I've been trying for five days! None of them can see me or hear me at all. I don't know why you're different, but you obviously are."

"Interesting. I wonder why." Len was still suspicious. "Prove it's you. When was the last time we met in private?"

"Oh, um, that's got to be three weeks ago. Mirror Master killed somebody, I was mad, really mad."

"Hmm." That was right. "Okay, say I believe you, you're the ghost of my dead nemesis. What do you want with me? Going to haunt me, punish me for my evil ways?"

"Of course not! I would never do that." Barry looked shocked at the suggestion and Len smirked.

"What do you want then?"

"You have to help me come back to life. I'm still here obviously, there's got to be some way to bring me back." Barry grinned. "I'd owe you a really big favour for this."

Len felt a rush of hope run through him, though he was careful not to let it show on his face. Barry's death had affected him more than he thought, the kid got in his way all the time but he hadn't actually wanted to see Barry dead, and not in such a horrible way.

"I'll help you, if I can. But bringing someone back from the dead, that's a little out of my skill set."

"Don't worry, I have an idea. I've been thinking about it for the last two days. I think my best shot is contacting the Arrow. See there's this pit that can heal people. Stick someone's body in it and they heal, and come back to life. There are some side effects, but anything is better than this, right? Once I've got a body I can deal with the rest."

"Alright..." Len was interrupted as the door to his room at the Rogues headquarters was thrown open. Lisa rushed in.

"Half of the Rogues have gone crazy! They decided to try and join Zoom, the other half tried to kill them for it." Lisa looked right through Barry as if he wasn't there.

"She can't see or hear me," Barry said, and Len wondered if Barry really was there or if the Flash's death had finally driven him insane. He looked over at Lisa.

"I'll be right there."

*

"Well, are you happy now?" Len said, leaning on his shovel. His parka and cold gun were on the ground, even with cool night air he could feel sweat dripping down his face. Digging up a grave was hard work, especially when you were doing it by yourself in the dark. The only source of light in the graveyard was Barry, he cast a strange light everywhere he went.

"Are you sure you don't want to get your team involved in this?"

"I was at my own funeral. I know how much it affected them, if it turns out I can't come back properly it's best just to leave them alone so they can grieve and heal, not think about me hovering around as a ghost."

"And you didn't care how much it affected me?" Barry looked shocked.

"Affected you?" he asked slowly.

"I've known you years Barry, sometimes we were on the same side, sometimes not. But I don't hate you and want you dead, and Zoom didn't exactly go easy on you." Len turned his eyes away, back to the coffin in the ground, where the body of Barry Allen lay.

"I'm sorry that I got you involved. But you're the only one who can see me."

"That's not what I mean. I'm not sorry that I got to spend some more time with you, even if you're a ghost and it'll hurt more afterwards. I think your other friends would feel the same way." Len stepped into the hole and started prying at the coffin lid while Barry considered it.

"I don't know. Maybe you're right, I'm not sure." Len finally got the lid off the coffin, and then he was looking at the decomposing remains of Barry Allen. It hadn't been long since Barry had been buried so the smell was worse than the sight, preservatives and decaying flesh.

"Wow, this is really weird." Barry peered down the hole at himself.

"You know, in all my years as a criminal this is actually something I've never done before, digging up a grave."

"A new first for you." Barry sat on the edge of his own grave, grinning. Len shook his head in disbelief.

"So, did you pick that quote on your gravestone?"

"Uh, yeah," Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "Iris knows I like it, Housman wrote it. You don't like it?"

"I always thought it was a rather sentimental view of death, home, rest, peace. That's what it implies. Has that been your experience of death so far?"

Barry frowned and looked upset, Len knew it was a cruel thing to say and he wanted to take it back almost immediately, but he didn't. He still felt a little queasy looking at Barry's body, he was allowed to be a little on edge.

Suddenly there was a flash of blue lightning and a small boom. Len looked up, and looming over him at the side of the grave was Zoom.

"Captain Cold, I've been looking for you."

"Fantastic. So nice to meet you," he drawled. He flickered his eyes over to Barry, Zoom obviously couldn't see him.

"I have to say, I did not expect you to be robbing the grave of your enemy by yourself at night, your cold gun and parka on the ground." Zoom sounded amused but it did nothing to lessen the intensity of his presence, just heighten it. Len did not scare easily but he felt his heart rate kick up a notch.

"Why are you here?"

In a flash Zoom was down in the grave with him, raising a vibrating hand.

"Len!" he heard Barry scream, and then the hand was inside his stomach, gripping his intestines and pulling them out. Oh God, it hurt. He could barely think, the pain blocked out everything around him and he heard ringing in his ears. His breath came fast, frosting in the cool night air.

"You were always getting in the way of my plans, holding the Rogues together and to your code. Thanks for digging your own grave by the way. I could do it in seconds of course, but it was nice of you to be so considerate all the same. "

Zoom picked Len up and he yelled in pain. Then he found himself dumped in the coffin next to Barry's body.

"It was nice knowing you," Zoom said. Then the lid was shut on him, and he heard earth being piled on him at super speed. Then he was all alone, dying, six feet underground. His breath was still coming fast, too fast, he struggled for air. He scratched and clawed at the boards in panic, he screamed.

"Len." Len turned his head. Barry was floating in the coffin with him, the ghostly see through image over the top of the decaying dead body. Len tried to speak, but he couldn't get the air out.

"It's okay, calm down." Barry looked distraught. "Breathe in, breathe out..." With Barry's help, Len calmed his breathing, he was still critically injured but his mind cleared a little, enough so that he could think.

"It hurts."

"I know. I'm so sorry." Barry was crying. "I didn't mean to get you killed."

"You didn't. He would have killed me wherever I was." Barry shook his head. Len kept focusing on Barry, whenever the panic and claustrophobia started to set in again, he brought his eyes firmly back to Barry's face, it seemed to help.

"What's it like?" Len said. "Dying."

Barry shrugged and paused, thinking. "I don't really know. Everything just stopped, like going to sleep, then I woke up as a ghost, I don't know what it'll be like for you. Maybe you'll turn into a ghost too, and we can hang out." Barry tried to smile, but it came out a little shaky.

"In all the time.... you've been dead, have you.... ever seen another ghost?" Len managed to get out.

"No," Barry was serious. "You're right...if you do the math, the number of people dead in human history, you'd think I'd have seen someone."

"Maybe that's what the afterlife is. Maybe everyone just spends eternity wandering Earth alone going slowly insane, never able to do anything, never able to help. Eventually terrorising the rare few that can see them, driving them insane too." It took Len a long time, but he managed to get it out. He could feel the hand of death stretching out towards him, his entire body was cold and he began to shake.

"Or maybe most people move on to somewhere better," Barry said softly. "And I got to stay here, so that someone could be with you right now, so that you didn't have to die alone."

Len smiled and coughed. Even dead and wandering around as a ghost, Barry was still an optimist. They fell silent, just looking at each other. Barry rested his hand by Len's cheek as Len took his last breath. At first Len could feel nothing, but gradually the hand became more solid against his cheek, comforting. Barry leaned closer to him, and Len felt a soft warm press of lips against his own.

Then....black.

_'Tis evening on the moorland free,_

_The starlit wave is still:_

_Home is the sailor from the sea,_

_The hunter from the hill._

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr: http://xxxneweyesxxx.tumblr.com/
> 
> Interested in a ColdFlash Secret Santa Exchange? http://coldflashsecretsanta.tumblr.com/


End file.
